Phillip Goff

When you look at what physics seems to be pointing at now, its story of what's going on at the fundamental level of reality is wildly esoteric. Things like the wave function, this very peculiar high dimensional entity that seems to have gone beyond space and time. How do we connect the world of our conscious experience, the world of

the passing present moment, the world of probability, the world of time and space with this very peculiar story that science seems to be telling us as what's going on down there at the base of reality. And I think that's one of the fundamental challenges of our time, really.

the passing present moment, the world of probability, the world of time and space with this very peculiar story that science seems to be telling us as what's going on down there at the base of reality. And I think that's one of the fundamental challenges of our time, really.

the passing present moment, the world of probability, the world of time and space with this very peculiar story that science seems to be telling us as what's going on down there at the base of reality. And I think that's one of the fundamental challenges of our time, really.

Panpsychism is the view that consciousness goes all the way down to the fundamental building blocks of physical reality. Perhaps a way into that is to start with human consciousness, which is incredibly rich and complicated, the results of millions of years of evolution. But consciousness comes in all shapes and sizes, right?

Panpsychism is the view that consciousness goes all the way down to the fundamental building blocks of physical reality. Perhaps a way into that is to start with human consciousness, which is incredibly rich and complicated, the results of millions of years of evolution. But consciousness comes in all shapes and sizes, right?

Panpsychism is the view that consciousness goes all the way down to the fundamental building blocks of physical reality. Perhaps a way into that is to start with human consciousness, which is incredibly rich and complicated, the results of millions of years of evolution. But consciousness comes in all shapes and sizes, right?

What it's like to be a sheep is a bit simpler to what it's like to be a human being. We presume, right? Yeah, we might actually, we might want to debate that, but I guess at least working with our common sense understanding.

What it's like to be a sheep is a bit simpler to what it's like to be a human being. We presume, right? Yeah, we might actually, we might want to debate that, but I guess at least working with our common sense understanding.

What it's like to be a sheep is a bit simpler to what it's like to be a human being. We presume, right? Yeah, we might actually, we might want to debate that, but I guess at least working with our common sense understanding.

Well, this is one of the reasons consciousness is so intractable because it's, as you say, it's not a publicly observable phenomenon. And then people, the pushback I can get to that is people say science deals with loads of unobservable things, you know? quantum wave functions or fundamental particles, maybe even other universes.

Well, this is one of the reasons consciousness is so intractable because it's, as you say, it's not a publicly observable phenomenon. And then people, the pushback I can get to that is people say science deals with loads of unobservable things, you know? quantum wave functions or fundamental particles, maybe even other universes.

Well, this is one of the reasons consciousness is so intractable because it's, as you say, it's not a publicly observable phenomenon. And then people, the pushback I can get to that is people say science deals with loads of unobservable things, you know? quantum wave functions or fundamental particles, maybe even other universes.

But there's a very important difference in the case of consciousness. In all these other cases, we are theorizing about things we can't observe, like fundamental particles or quantum wave functions. But we're doing that in order to explain what we can observe, in order to explain the data of observation experiments.

But there's a very important difference in the case of consciousness. In all these other cases, we are theorizing about things we can't observe, like fundamental particles or quantum wave functions. But we're doing that in order to explain what we can observe, in order to explain the data of observation experiments.

But there's a very important difference in the case of consciousness. In all these other cases, we are theorizing about things we can't observe, like fundamental particles or quantum wave functions. But we're doing that in order to explain what we can observe, in order to explain the data of observation experiments.

In the unique case of consciousness, the thing we are trying to explain is not publicly observable. We know about consciousness not from experiments. We didn't find it in a particle collider. We know about consciousness just by being conscious, right? Being immediately aware of our feelings of pleasure and pain and seeing color, hearing sound.

In the unique case of consciousness, the thing we are trying to explain is not publicly observable. We know about consciousness not from experiments. We didn't find it in a particle collider. We know about consciousness just by being conscious, right? Being immediately aware of our feelings of pleasure and pain and seeing color, hearing sound.

In the unique case of consciousness, the thing we are trying to explain is not publicly observable. We know about consciousness not from experiments. We didn't find it in a particle collider. We know about consciousness just by being conscious, right? Being immediately aware of our feelings of pleasure and pain and seeing color, hearing sound.

So this really limits our capacity to deal with it experimentally. And what we can do if we're dealing with another human being is we can ask them, right? What are you experiencing? And if I do that while I'm scanning your brain... I can start to correlate which kinds of conscious experience go with which kinds of brain state in the human case, although it's already a bit of a mess even there.